To meet the multi-pronged challenge from the resistance forcse who are on an ascendancy after the coup in the couuntry in February 2021, the Myanmar military is undertaking several measures.
One is the conscription law summoning all men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 to serve for at least two years. Declaration of the People’s Military Service Law regime met with a public outcry as military officials announced thousands of young people are eligible for conscription.
The requirement for conscription is underlined by the fact that many of the light infantry battalions of the Amy which have surrendered are undermanned. The aim is also to deny the PDFs and EAOs ready recruits of youth. This has created a dilemma for the militant groups in North East India having sanctuaries in Myanmar.
The NSCN-K (Yung Aung) group is set to provide conscripts to the Myanmar Army in a highly controversial plan of the military. Apart from the NSCN K YA other groups from the North East operating in Myanmar may be also coerced in providing conscripts for the Myanmar Army as a price for the sanctuaries that have been provided to them in that country. The military has already conducted a census of men and women in the Naga Self-Administered Zone and other Naga inhabited areas, cautioning that forced conscription was now only a matter of time.
Groups as United National Liberation Front (UNLF), which is the oldest Meitei insurgent group from Manipur, signed a peace accord with the Centre and the Manipur government possibly to escape such a predicament. Several militant outfits of Northeast India have bases in Myanmar and with the conscription law their cadres would be asked to join the military in force while some who are with the Chin State are likely to be drawn on the side of resistance.
Some groups in Nagaland have expressed concern that the militant groups from India should be joining the PDF like the Chins, Shans, and Kachins rather than side with the Junta.
These elements feel that the National Unity government (NUG) led PDF will eventually win the civil war in Myanmar in which case groups as the NSCN K YA may find themselves on the losing side.
This comes amidst lack of concern in the Naga groups in Nagaland of the plight of their ethnic kinsmen in Myanmar thus leading to a concern that the ultimate aspiration of a united Naga nation is likely to be given the short shrift.